Gabrielle's eyes were wide. You mean this tapestry is somehow linked to all of that?
I think it must be, Elise whispered. She looked back down at the folded design. To the borderlands east turn your eye...' Maybe if we turn the tapestry to the left?
She pivoted the weaving ninety degrees, so that the top border was facing east. The folded center was running vertical now. And within the design emerged another--one that hadn't been obviously visible until held at this new angle. The faint outline of a cross was stitched into the tapestry, and in the center of it was a single word spelled out in the threads.
Praha,' Elise read aloud, astonished that a voice from so long ago was suddenly speaking through the silk and canvas of her work. The secret, whatever it is, is in Prague.
That's incredible, Savannah gasped.
She reached out and ran her fingertips over the hidden text. No sooner had they skimmed the stitches when the female drew her hand back as if she'd been burned.
Oh, my God. Her dark brown eyes were stricken and wide. She pressed her hand down onto the fabric again, holding it there in grave silence.
Savannah, what do you feel?
When she finally spoke, her voice was airless with dread. This tapestry has a few more secrets to tell.
Chapter Thirty
The warriors were gearing up for patrol when the glass doors to the tech lab whisked open and four beautiful women rushed inside. Elise and Gabrielle were carrying the tapestry from Lucan's library; Tess and Savannah walked behind them with serious looks on their faces. Savannah seemed especially grim, her mouth drawn into a flat line, her hands flexing and fisting at her sides as she walked.
Tegan met Elise's anxious gaze. What's going on?
The tapestry, she said as she and Gabrielle spread it out on the meeting table. I think we've figured out what the Odolf riddle refers to.
You serious?
Yeah. Her sober expression told him that it wasn't going to be good news.
Tegan and the other warriors gathered around the women. Okay. Let's see what you have.
He watched, astonished and proud, as she recited each puzzling verse and folded the design accordingly. It was incredible, and so obvious now that Elise was putting it together for them. The tapestry correlated exactly to each seemingly nonsensical phrase. When Elise was finished, she stepped back and revealed an entirely new design--one that Kassia had hidden in the threads as she sewed the piece all those years ago.
Elise met Tegan's curious look. When I was at Irina's place, she showed me some needlework that was incredibly detailed. It also had a secret design woven into it. When I saw this tapestry on the wall just now, I knew it had to have been made by the same hand. The more I looked at it, I wondered if there might be something more to it.
Tegan smiled. He didn't care one bit that everyone saw him bring her under his arm and lovingly kiss her brow. Good work.
I know that mountain range, Lucan said as he inspected the weaving.
Tegan nodded, also recognizing the distinctive formation that lay northeast of Prague. It's not far from the region where most of the Breed was living at the time.
So, this is meant to be some kind of map? Rio asked. If so, what are we looking for?
It's not what, but who. Savannah's soft voice drew everyone's attention. The tapestry points to a location where Dragos helped hide someone. The vampire who fathered him.
Jesus Christ.
Tegan didn't know which of the warriors muttered the curse, but each one of them had to understand the weight of what Savannah had just said.
Dragos's Breedmate wove this piece specifically for me, Lucan put in with a dark scowl. Are you saying Kassia deliberately hid this message in here? Why? And why the hell wouldn't she come to me and tell me about this?
Because she was afraid, Savannah said. She'd been entrusted with a terrible secret, and she feared what might happen if she let it out.
Gideon glanced over at his mate. You felt all that in the cloth, babe?
Savannah nodded. There's more too. And it's not good.
Tell us, Lucan said grimly. Whatever you can read in this thing, we need to know. The room went still as Savannah reached out and put her hands on the tapestry. The Breedmate's unique gift of psychometry had been useful to the Order in the past, but everyone watching as she began to absorb the emotional history of the piece fell into total silence, well aware that they'd never needed Savannah's special talent more than now.
Kassia was tormented by what she knew, but Dragos kept a close eye on her and she knew that if she told the secret, her mate would find out. He might move what he was hiding, and then there would be no hope of fixing what he had done. Savannah closed her eyes in concentration. Kassia had no one to share her burden with--not even her dearest friend, Sorcha.
Tegan felt his jaw go rigid at the mention of the sweet girl who met such a terrible end because of his failings. As if to say she understood what he was feeling, Elise's hand came to rest gently on his arm. Her touch was caring and compassionate, her soft gaze tender.
Savannah went on. When Lucan asked Kassia to make this tapestry, she realized that maybe there was a way to warn him of what Dragos had done. So, as she stitched the remembrance for Lucan, she added clues and prayed one day he'd discover them before it was too late.
What did Dragos do? Lucan asked, his deep voice booming in the quiet of the lab. How the hell did he begin this deception?
For a long time, Savannah didn't speak. She slowly withdrew her hands, and when she turned to face the Order's leader, her pretty features were bleak.
When you declared war on the last of the Ancients--only a few months before this tapestry was made--Dragos and the alien creature who fathered him forged a pact. Dragos helped his father escape into the mountains rather than stand and fight you and the rest of the Order.